My two years serving the people of the Philippines as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December 8

Kumusta po pamiliya:) nagpapasalamat po ako para sa itong email talaga,
maraming salamat Nanay:) sobrang mabait kayo:) Thanks mama for this
email I am way grateful for it and I am grateful really for the time you
take to write it and the love that you send with it:) Its a beautiful
thing that I can feel my mamas love from all the way across the world.
Sometimes it is weird to think that I am in the Philippines and so far
away from all of you. haha Sometimes I will just have like a weird
realization that I am in the Philippines and on my mission and just the
life that I live is completely different then the life that I lived
before my mission. Gosh my life is so great right now and I can't even
explain how I feel really. Mama, you said one thing in the email that
surprised me. You said that it must be hard to keep my smile everyday
and to be honest I love smiling and I smile everyday because I am truly
happy. Don't get me wrong, missionary work is super hard and its super
hot and I wash my own clothes with my hands and we don't get anytime to
rest and I am starting to get a little skinny but hey life is so flippen
great and I am super happy. I love waking up and I love washing my
clothes with my hands and I love always sweating and I love always being
tired but at the same time always having energy to work hard and be
happy. I give it all to the Lord because I would be home in Ferndale if I
was not a missionary of God and sharing his true Gospel. This life is
difficult but because I am a missionary of God I don't think about or
feel the difficult, I think about how I can fix the difficult and how I
can make the difficult better and what I need to do to be the
missionary that the Lord wants me to be. As a missionary I have never
felt more guidance in my life ever! And I truly feel him in my life
guiding me every step of the way. I am a happy missionary because this
work is true and of God, and I love serving the Lord everyday and there
are days where I just don't want to sleep and I just want to keep
sharing to people and God gives me the strength everyday to have my
heart and mind for him and life is good as a missionary and I am so
blessed.

Alright haha now for the reply of the
email you sent me. I have not received the Christmas package yet but
hopefully I will tomorrow! The whole mission is going down to Laoag to
hold an all day Christmas party type thing haha we are going to play
sports in the afternoon and then we are going to have a big feast and
each zone has prepared their own native dance and then just a skit about
mission work and our zones dance and skit is super super funny hahaha I
am way excited for sure. This is all tomorrow by the way. If you send
Elder D a package maybe just get him a tie and make sure it is a
blue tie cause that is his favorite color haha and then get him some
nutella and some nike socks and then some goodies, he will really like
that and appreciate it a bunch.

I am not to sure about the calling
and skyping deal, I know that we are able to skype if you all want but
if you want to call that would be great too because then I can talk with
y'all separately:) I think I would rather call but if you all want to
skype then that is way great too:) its all up to you guys and what you
want to do, i am just super happy I get to talk with all of you. Who
will be there?

Paul came back to ferndale for a visit!? I bet that
made Cooper super happy! Seeing Paul is just like seeing an older
brother. Paul is a big example to me in my life and maybe if I didn't
truly notice it back then I do notice it now. Paul fulfilled his calling
as a young mens president. Heavenly Father knew that was the calling
for him because he has helped me prepare for a mission so much and he
has helped cooper so much as well. He is a great example and a true
friend and I know when I get a calling after my mission I am going to
fulfill it and do my best because it makes a big difference. I am way
happy you all saw Paul I hope he is doing great, I sure love that guy.

As for me, yesterday we had a black out so there was no power
for the whole day and we had church yesterday and a baptism of my two
favorite boys in the world haha one is 13 and the other is 11. Anyways,
we had no power to fill up the font so we had to go out to the ocean and
the ocean was a little bit rough but not really but we still tried and I
walked out there with A the 11 year old and we were out in the
water and the waves were just a little strong and I raised my hand and
started saying the baptismal prayer and right at the end of the prayer
the waters went calm as can be and I immersed him in the water and then
he came out and just was smiling and then C the 13 year old came
out to the ocean and again it was a little rough but at the end of the
baptismal prayer the waters just went calm and I immersed him in the
water and brought him up and he too had a big smile on his face.........
Baptism is real and true and a necesessity here on earth and it is an
ordinance of God and because it is an ordinance of God of course we need
the power and authority of God in order to do it and I know that the
baptism of C and A yesterday was real and true and through true
authority of God.

Also yesterday in sacrament meeting we broke a new
record for a attendance and that was 65 so we are super happy but we are
working for 80. In sacrament meeting president told me that the Elders
are going to give the talks for the day so he said that I would give one
and Elder D would as well. So we had no preparation or even time
to prepare but before the sacrament I just said a prayer to know what
to teach or what to share and then during sacrament I just got the
prompting to teach about the sacrament and the importance of taking the
bread and water and about reverence and just about realizing and knowing
that this is the true church of God so we need to act and speak like He
is here, because, He is here. So that was my prompting to share about
and I stood up and I started sharing and this experience for me was
super powerful, the words that I spoke was all guidance of the Spirit
and everybody was focused and really listening. The love that I felt for
these people as I stood in the front and shared with them and just as I
was looking at all of them was so strong and it was one of the biggest
moments that I had just truly felt the Love of Jesus Christ for His
Children, I just felt a portion of the love that He has for every single
one of his children and it was powerful. Being a missionary, my love
for people is not love from a person to a person but truly I feel the
Love of Jesus Christ through me loving these people here in Bangui. I
think about them constantly I try to know their needs I want the best
for them and then I ask why? they are just people, but I know they are
children of God and he wants every single child to return to him and
enjoy His eternal happiness and love and the message that I carry and
share as a missionary is the path for those children to return and live
with him and enjoy that eternal love. I am super blessed and I can't
describe my feelings as a missionary but just know that I am happy
because of Jesus Christ and I am who I am because of him and He is my
strength, my joy, my love and my happiness and my salvation and I am
blessed to be an instrument of the Lord to help his children. I would
give my life for this Gospel but it is true and the feelings are real
and the blessings are real and it is true.

Thanks mama for this email again and I now I get to email the good ol Colbster:)